Photo:
Dresden air raid victims being cremated 500 at a time on
the Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945 (copyright photo by the
late Walter Hahn from Apocalypse 1945: the Destruction
of Dresden)

Stars &
StripesLondon Edition, Saturday, May 5, 1945, Vol. 5,
No. 156

Air Raid on Dresden
Killed More Than 300,000

by Dan ReganStars and Stripes Staff Writer

With the 1st Army, May 3 (Delayed) -- The
Allied air raid on Dresden on Feb. 13-14 killed 300,000
persons, according to a report by Dresden police to a group
of 600 -- British and French -- prisoners who were given
passes by the Germans to enter the American lines.

Nine British PWs were working in Dresden during the raid
and said the horror and devastation caused by the
Anglo-American 14-hour raid was beyond human comprehension
unless one could see for himself.

One British sergeant said,

"Reports from Dresden police that 300,000 died
as a result of the bombing didn't include deaths among
1,000,000 evacuees from the Breslau area trying to escape
from the Russians. There were no records on them.

"After seeing the results of the bombing, I believe
these figures are correct."

"They had to pitchfork shriveled bodies onto trucks and
wagons and cart them to shallow graves on the outskirts of
the city. But after two weeks if work the job became too
much to cope with and they found other means to gather up
the dead."

"They burned bodies in a great heap in the center of the
city, but the most effective way, for sanitary reasons, was
to take flamethrowers and burn the dead as they lay in the
ruins. They would just turn the flamethrowers into the
houses, burn the dead and then close off the entire area.
The whole city is flattened. They were unable to clean up
the dead lying beside roads for several weeks," the sergeant
added.